- Major League Baseball is approaching its final week, and clearly the pressure of the playoff push is getting to players, coaches and even umpires. For example, the Milwaukee Brewers are wilting under the heat of their NL Central race with the Chicago Cubs, having dropped three of four games in Atlanta this weekend while the Cubs swept the Pirates in Chicago. Nowhere was the fraying of Milwaukee’s nerves so obvious as in Sunday’s game, when manager Ned Yost was ejected as his team was busy blowing a three-run lead and dropping another huge game. Throwing a tantrum, getting in the umpire’s face and getting thrown out of the game was as trite, predictable and clichéd a motivational ploy as a manager can make in a situation like this, but it didn’t work on this day and it isn't going to salvage the season for a Brewers team that is fading quickly. Of course, Yost’s tête-à-tête with an umpire wasn’t the most noteworthy incident to take place Sunday, thanks to noted hothead and perpetual ticking time bomb Milton Bradley. Bradley has had run ins with cops trying to give him speeding tickets, he’s thrown plastic bottles down at the feet of fans who were heckling him, he’s thrown baseballs out onto the field when ejected from games and he’s done so many other inexcusable things that there’s not room to mention them all. He’d been quiet so far this year, but you just knew he wasn’t going to make it through an entire season without making waves. During today’s game, Bradley was on first base after getting a hit and he took his lead off the base when things went sour. He called timeout emphatically and sprinted back to first, where he proceeded to spin around and head straight for first base umpire Mike Winters, who was stationed a few feet behind the bag in foul territory. Padres first base coach Bobby Meachem restrained Bradley, who was livid at Winters and was screaming at him and gesticulating wildly. Bradley contends that Winters was baiting him because of an incident in the previous game when Bradley was accused of throwing his bat at another umpire. He and Winters got into it over that incident and when Bradley pointed to the crowd and told Winters that they were all over the umpire’s case, Winters allegedly responded with a string of profanities and verbal challenges. It wasn’t long before Padres manager Bud Black came out of the dugout and entered the fray, which ended up being a decidedly bad thing for his team and his player. As Black pushed Bradley away from Winters, he inadvertently knocked Milton to the ground and injured him in the process. Once that happened, the incident fizzled out in short order, but now the Padres could be without one of their best offensive players as they try to hold on to a wild card lead and possibly catch Arizona for the NL West title. If the rest of this final week of the MLB regular season is anything like its first day, this is going to be a phenomenal week of baseball and then some…..
- I’ve got a deal for the Buddhist monks in Myanmar: You guys keep rioting and protesting and I’ll keep giving you props and posting regular updates on your exploits. These dudes are beasts, never-ending in their opposition to their country’s dictatorial, oppressive government and all who support that government. Already they’ve staged protest marches and engaged in property destruction to the stores of shop owners who support the government, and now they’re marching again. This time the monks marched right past police barricades to the home of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a move designed to further pressure the government by linking the monks’ cause to a woman who is an icon of Myanmar’s decades-old struggle for democracy. Again, I marvel at the chutzpah that these monks continue to show, not backing down no matter what measures the government tries to put in place to stop them. They’ve arrested monks, shot at them, put up barricades and still these guys keep coming. Fight the power, Buddhist monks, fight the power. You guys rock and you need to keep this up until you force your government to deal with the issues you’re raising.
- Finally…..the Rock has come back……to…..oops, wrong line. Finally, the time has come…..for my favorite shows to return…..with new episodes. Admittedly, that list of favorite shows with new episodes is much shorter this year, but I’m trying not to allow that reality to dampen my enthusiasm. Yes, with Prison Break getting an early jump on things last week, this week’s slate of premieres for me to be excited about numbers a paltry two: Heroes and Smallville. However, I’m hoping that the premieres of these two shows will be so phenomenal that they’ll take my mind off that other stuff. I’m especially pumped for Heroes because the show was so great during its first season and it continues to weave in new characters all the time. Last season everything built to a crescendo with Peter Petrelli and Sylar battling in New York’s Kirby Plaza and Sylar apparently being killed. Peter was about to explode from absorbing powers from so many other “gifted” people before his brother Nathan grabbed him and flew out of sight into the sky where a massive explosion could be seen from the ground. The questions to be answered are: 1) Where Sylar is, because we saw some weird sort of oozing sludge sliding into a sewer grate where he was killed and Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar, is going to be back this season, albeit later in the season due to obligations on a Star Trek show whose name I don’t know because Star Trek is for losers, 2) What happened to the brothers Petrelli?, 3) Where is the über-funny Hiro Nakamura, because he appeared to teleport himself back in time at the end of last season and found himself in the middle of an ancient Japanese battle scene. There are actually a lot more questions, including the fate of Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), but those are the major ones I’ll be wondering about as Season Two kicks off Monday night at 9 p.m. on NBC. As for Smallville, I’ve read some news bits on TVGuide.com, but nothing huge to the point that it’s got me on the edge of my seat. Much of the early part of the season looks to be focused on the arrival of Clark Kent’s cousin from krypton , a girl who was sent to Earth at the same time as the Man of Steel but has been in some sort of suspended state of animation since then. The explosion at the dam in the season finale woke her and now she has to adjust to life on Earth with the help of her cousin. Also hanging in the balance are the fates of Lana Lang and Chloe Sullivan, both of who were left in perilous positions as last season came to a close. Chloe was in a weird trance/coma after her meteor power surfaced, while Lana was supposedly blown up by a car bomb even though we never saw her in the wreckage of the car and a delivery truck that she could have easily climed into passed by her car and hid her and her vehicle from view right before the explosion. I believe she’s not dead, although the season premiere could prove me wrong (doubt it). But tune in to the CW Thursday night at 8 p.m. to find out in what should be an awesome season premiere.
- Speaking of the new TV season, I’m sure that numerous network execs and producers are breathing a sigh of relief with the release of the new album from KT Tunstall, Drastic Fantastic. Why would this be such a big relief to TV networks, you ask? Well, if you think back to last season, you’ll remember that Tunstall’s songs became so ubiquitous that you literally couldn’t get away with them no matter what network you were watching. The CW used songs like Black Horse and the Cherry Tree and Suddenly I See for numerous shows, American Karaoke used Tunstall’s music for its glorified karaoke contest and the movie The Devil Wears Prada also featured Tunstall’s tunes. It got to the point that the use of Tunstall’s songs was so over the top that VH1’s Best Week Ever did a gag segment about it, which only happens if the topic is something that’s so blatantly obvious that everyone has noticed it. Well, Tunstall is back, full of folk, pop, soul and a few stabs at rock credibility that fall short of the mark. Her signature vocals remain, with their smoky, sultry vibe and if that’s what you’re looking for, then this is an album for you. If you don’t way to buy the album, though, just tune in to any TV network any night of the week and I’m guessing you’ll hear songs from it on your favorite shows this season.
- Nice try, Scott Boras. The über-agent who is largely responsible for negotiating some of the most obscene, outrageous contracts in the history of Major League Baseball is already on the campaign trail, angling for a new deal for his most famous client. Never mind that this client, one Alexander Rodriguez, already has a 10-year, $252 million contract with three years remaining. A-Rod can opt out of the contract after this season and because Boras feels his client can get an even more lucrative deal (and thus earn more money and attention for Boras, the spotlight whore that he is), that’s exactly what Rodriguez is expected to do. Boras will undoubtedly pull out all the stops in seeking a new deal, including flat-out lying, as he’s busy doing right now. Boras claims that a prospective new owner for the Chicago Cubs is already negotiating a new contrct with A-Rod, and that this new deal is worth $30 million per year and would include a partial ownership stake in the team. The first problem with this is that it’s against MLB rules for any team or team representative to negotiate with a player who is currently under contract with another team. That would be tampering, and no one in baseball is dumb enough to do that with the game’s highest-profile player. Also, there’s no way that a prospective buyer of a team is already negotiating a contract with anyone, because the execs and front office personnel currently with the team are still in control. Lastly, it is also against MLB rules for a player to have any sort of ownership share in a team while they are playing, nor can a player negotiate for a future ownership stake for after his career. T his entire “story” is nothing more than Boras trying to drive up the price for his client by creating an imaginary bidding war between suitors who don’t even exist yet. That’s not to say that if Rodriguez opts out that there won't be several teams vying to sign him, because a few can afford his steep price tag and they’ll go after him hard. It’s just amusing that Boras would throw out such obvious fabrications that no one with any sort of real baseball knowledge would believe and expect people to buy in. Nice try, S., but I’m not that gullible.
No comments:
Post a Comment